The Is Kardi’s Business: The CM Cover Story Interview with Kardinal Offishall

On this week’s show, Mike is thrilled to be sharing his entire conversation with Kardinal Offishall, which was had for the cover story in the most recently issue of Canadian Musician magazine. There are not many people you can speak to for over an hour and still be left with so much more you want to ask, but Kardi is that kind of person. Of course, he’s one of Canada’s pioneering rap stars, with global success that spans more than two decades and huge hits like “BaKardi Slang,” “Dangerous,” and “Body Bounce,” but he is also carving out a unique and influential role on the business side of the industry as the Senior Vice President of A&R at Universal Music Canada, and a board member at ADVANCE, Canada’s Black music business collective, chair of UMC’s B.L.A.C.K. Label Coalition (BLC), and Canada’s representative on Universal Music Group’s Task Force for Meaningful Change. In this wide-ranging conversation, Kardi discusses his approach to A&R and his thoughts on music analytics, how he and The Circle crew hustled and paved the way for other Canadian rap artists internationally, how Randy Lennox convinced him to become a label executive, what “meaningful change” in the industry really looks like, and a lot more.